Mules and Men

Brer Rabbit is an important folktale figure used broadly across African American oral traditions. His name means “Brother Rabbit,” which serves to anthropomorphize him, thus rendering him more relatable and indicative of human activity. He tends to be smart, quick, and flippant toward authority, which relates to his role as the trickster figure. There are several other “Brer” animal characters in the folklore recorded in this book, including: Brer Dog, Brer Lion, and Brer ‘Gator.

A company town is a town in which one company owns most or all of the land, resources, housing, and amenities, thus exerting much control over the activities that transpire there. The company is also the sole or primary employer in the region. Its ability to exercise this control is the source of many criticisms about this type of relationship between employers and employees. Many towns mentioned in the first part of this work are company towns.

This refers to the summoning and negotiation between humans and spirits, as practiced in the hoodoo tradition. Hoodoo practitioners generally believe that powerful spirits—a catch-all term used both to refer to the abstract notion of a human “soul” or “essence,” and to the guiding and powerful spirits who have greater knowledge than humans—can be summoned to guide the practitioner through a ritual.